Well, that was quite the night. Just three weeks after Medway went to the polls for local elections, we did so again for European elections. Following the stability in those elections, the people of Medway went for something very different in these elections:

Between councillors losing their seats, retirements, and deselections, a little under a third of councillors who were in office last week ago no longer are. I thought it’d be nice to take a look at those who will no longer be gracing the council chamber. Consider this like the ‘in memoriam’ section at the Oscars, just without the glitz, glamour, and likeable personalities. Continue reading “So, farewell then.. 2019 edition”

Back in 2015 I wrote an article shortly before the local elections of that year on how well the parties were doing on a quest for gender equality. The results were, to put it mildly, not happy reading. Women were a minority on the candidate lists from most parties, and made up little more than a quarter of councillors in the chamber. So four years on, are we doing any better?

To begin, here is an infographic showing the current composition of the council by gender:

What is it with certain members of the Medway Conservatives and social media? Following the three year long debacle of Mike Franklin, news reaches us that yet another Medway Conservative seems to have been suspended for sharing offensive content.

So following months of campaigns getting underway, two days ago the final list of candidates was released for our upcoming local elections in Medway. 199 candidates spread across seven different parties and a record number of independents will compete for 55 council seats on May 2. Let’s take a look at the options in each of our 22 wards.

So, farewell then Michael Franklin, councillor for Luton and Wayfield, who has finally been expelled by Medway Conservative three years after his grossly offensive tweeting was highlighted by this website.

No action was taken against Cllr Franklin, and last year, Medway Conservatives reselected him to fight for the Luton and Wayfield ward again. Change occurred last month when Baroness Warsi highlighted Cllr Franklin’s tweets, which led to the national party stepping in and a suspension finally being imposed.

Now, over 1,000 days after the issue was first raised, he has been formally expelled from the party.